Are games getting easier?

[Gnome]

Here's another friendly debate.

So I found my dusty old copy of super Ghosts n' Ghouls and immediately, I found that it was, hard. Though hard understates it to a degree, I could not, for the life of me, get past the first stage.

Then my brother, a life long old school gamer takes the controls, and even though he hasn't played that game for 15 years. He gets to the forth stage on one life.

This brings me to my point. Are we as gamers being softened? I mean, I can beat most games these days, but take me back to the old times and its completely different.

Whats your two cents?

[Silverwind]

Absolutely. Difficulty isn't as important a factor as it once was in the commercial game industry, graphics and storyline seem to get all the attention. Personally I think it's a tremendous shame, as nowadays winning a game presents no merit, whereas back in the good old days you were a local legend if you could defeat Shang Tsung or reach the last level in Golden Axe.

The old games were more enjoyable too. I still think Sonic the Hedgehog is the best platformer in the world, and Sega's numerous attempts to 'modernize it' with 3D graphics and more game mechanics resulted in crap games. Yuji Naka gave birth to a masterpiece, so why reinvent the wheel?

As for some of the hardest games ever, I'd say Alien Storm, Street Fighter II and Streets of Rage III (the English version's hard mode is impossible!).

[EqwanoX]

Here's another friendly debate.

So I found my dusty old copy of super Ghosts n' Ghouls and immediately, I found that it was, hard. Though hard understates it to a degree, I could not, for the life of me, get past the first stage.

Then my brother, a life long old school gamer takes the controls, and even though he hasn't played that game for 15 years. He gets to the forth stage on one life.

This brings me to my point. Are we as gamers being softened? I mean, I can beat most games these days, but take me back to the old times and its completely different.

Whats your two cents?

i love super gouls n ghosts, its so classic, you just have to learn the layout and where enemies are to get the hang of it, i learned in psycology class that how well you learn and adapt to your surroundings is a measure of intelligence so you could argue it takes a fair amount of intelligence to progress in a difficult game. but nowadays companies want to appeal to the largest market possible which is casual gamers, which i cant argue with but i like a challenge once in a while

double dragon 2 is the hardest game, i still cant beat it

[Charlo]

I noticed this when I played Tomb Raider II on my PC.  It was released in 1998 (I think), when graphics just started progressing to the point where it became possible to focus more on graphics than gameplay.  TRII was hard.  I thought it might just be me, but reviews online said the same thing.  All of the modern games I've played (which isn't many) have been quite easy to beat; TRII was definitely the hardest game I've completed.  I wasn't a gamer in the older console days, but my understanding is that some of those games were completely, ridiculously difficult.

I don't think that easier games is necessarily a bad thing, however.  Video games are more and more becoming a form of casual entertainment, where the focus is on enjoying yourself rather than being challenged.  Games are marketed to more than just basement-dwelling pimpleface teenagers.  Do you think millions of overweight, depressed housewives would play FarmVille if it presented any level of difficulty or challenge (other than the difficulty of stiffarming your real life friends to become your "neighbor")?  Of course not.  Game developers know how to maximize their profits, and it's not by making unbeatable games.  

[EqwanoX]

i just remembered a perfect example of this....,.... zelda twilight princess,  was a disapointment, the whole game is a cake walk, i easily beat bosses on my first encounter sinse damage only takes half a heart. i just got it for gamecube a year ago and only played it for a few hours and it failed to catch my interest . a year later i forced myself to play it cause its zelda and i got all the way to the sky palace and it still hasnt got my interest, i would consider the first fable to be much more entertaining. i loved ocarina and the boss fights would get my heart pumping. if you die in twilight theres no real consequence, you start out in the same room with some hearts replenished, you dont even go back to the dungeons entrance, i cant believe there was so much hype around this game and theres no challenge, its BOREING, FAIL.

[Connors]

I agree with Eqwanox. actually played Phantom Hourglass before the other Zelda games and it wasn't very hard, and then I actually thought the Wii game was pretty cool, but NOW I have Ocarina of Time and its waaaay mroe interesting. I need to find all the older Zelda games now. XD
 Also for a while my parents once got out our old Commodore 64, and man that was fun. There were a bunch of old floppy disks with games and they were all pretty hard.

But the best example is probably the original Lemmings. Has anyone played it? Personally I think it never gets old. The "Fun" level set was a cakewalk, and it goes up to Tricky and then the "Mayhem" levels which I couldn't beat the first one. Sadly I never got to play Lemmings Paintball.

[Silverwind]

I'm friends with a guy who's friends with the guy who made Lemmings.

And yeah, I never got past the beginner levels...